The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-02-19
GYPSY GRANDAMS,
Aged Females Who Constitute the Really
Witching Part of tho Romany People.

Witching Part of the Romany People.
AT nearly every tent-mouth or in
nearly every wagon-front you will see
one or more of the old spae-wives of
the camp. These are the Gypsy grand
ans. They are tall and strong, though
wrinkled and grewsome. If away past
fourscore years of age, they have their
own teeth, are wonderful on their legs
and in their faculties, and are living
lessons of the healthfulness of outdoor
life. They are not put aside as we do
our own old folk. They are the seers,
the prophetesses, the advisers, the
strong, safe reserve influence in all the
important affairs of the race. Many
and many | know well, though they are
hard to know. But they will not dis
close like the younger growth, and you
have to battle your way bravely and
with valiant persistency to reach their
inner lives. With their shrill, keen
voices; their coarse, gray hair, which
never becomes fairly white; their fat,
brown, ever-Open breasts, like rugged
studies in bronze; their quick,
swinging and seemingly fierce gait.
suggesting unchanging power; their
long, skinny arms and legs, half shown
to the knee, and their eyes, undimmed
to their dying day though never know
ing shade from the sun other than that
OF the tree or tent-they are the really
Wltching part of the Romany people;
and as you study them by the camp
fires there, though you are impressed
with the respect and even tenderness
all yield them, you can for the first
time rightly understand how 'Lanca-
shire Witches came to be written. and
how true type SCOTS Meg Merrilies
may have been. These old spae-wives
never labor. They increasingly putter.
They poke the fires when they need no
poking. They fuss with the cooking
meals at all sorts of inopportune mo-
ments. They quarrel with the thinkers,
who yelp back at them all sorts of re-
spectful badinage They beat the dogs
numerically for no offense, for no
human ever saw a Gypsy dog commit
an improperly. They berate sons and
Grandsons for alleged unsatisfactory
dickering, and garrulousy insist that
the world shall be made more and more
the Gypsy's prey. They awake as from
an o'er-long dream and assault the
horses and mules, which tremble and
crouch as before u tempest. They
charge upon roistering children, who
scatter to cover and send back mock
pleadings or uncanny laughter from
their safe retreats. They are ever
sleeping, yet never asleep; and the
breaking of a twig or the rustling of
leaves at night will bring these ghostly
and fearless old souls to their feet in
the middle OF the camp before the alert
est OF the men have awakened They
are bright, brave relics of time when
life to the Gypsy was one of eternal
dread; and they would not quite be
happy in the new life that has come to
them could they not entertain the belief
in their active but utterly useless exist
enceS that their own owlish alertness
each day and night kept the old bling
(deYlD himself from utterly annihilat-
ing every soul in the camp. And
indeed would the devil himself be a
valiant fellow were he bold enough to
NEEDLE with any folk thus sentineled
by women.
Here and there are seen very old
men tinkering about wagons, mend
ing harness, bringing dry branches,
and piline them by the tents, or gather
ing dead limbs from the deeper forests
for the common ''woodpile' to which
all members Of the camp sometimes
bring bits and pieces and branches,
going over and over the horses like the
skillful veterinarians they are, bringing
water from the stream for cooking and
washing purposes, and doing innumera-
bic odd jobs and chores naturally neces-
sary from camp life; yet still doing
every thing in that easy, plenty-of-time
way which gives all the people of the
place an air Of content and vagabondism
no pen can fully describe. These old
men are the silent shadowy presences
of the land You will not hear one OF
them speak half dozen times day.
The queer, hating Gypsy dogs follow
silently about at respectful distance
from their heels as dumb and expires
sionless as themselves. But those old
men all help round out the picture, and
while they are far less noisy than the
fussy and qucrulous old spac-wives of
the band, they are nevertheless faithful
and constant in whatever falls to their
lot to see done or to do.-Eigar l..
W0Semdn, in Chicago Mews.
A Neat Apology.